MovieChat Forums > The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (2012) Discussion > They ruined their own palace

They ruined their own palace

posted 12 years ago by FdAgent35
4 replies | jump to latest

Housing didn't let it go to waste. Those people ruined it and made it a slum right away so NO ONE wanted to work there or upkeep it.

They Housing C. made the apartment unbreakable after a while because of the animals and the one guys says, "WELL WHEN IT'S WAS MADE UNBREAKABLE ALL WE WANTED TO DO WAS BREAK IT" LOL!!!!! Trash society.

Urinating in the elevators,hallways,etc. Throwing stuff at the EMT's, police, Fire dept, right off the bat. They deserve what they got. They ruined a nice thing of course.

The same people who built Pruitt, built the same places in other certain communities and they were upkept by the residents and still stand today. Hmmm.

[–] palisade-1 12 years ago

Do you have a source for this?

I don't have a dog in this hunt, so to speak, but have no reason to disbelieve Chad Friedrich's assertion that the financial crisis in St Louis in the 50's prevented their providing adequate maintenance. Everyone knows the "broken window" principle, whereby inattention to small details leads to bigger and bigger problems. Friedrichs points out that the project functioned best when it was full; as vacancy rates climbed, so too did maintenance fall and other problems begin.

I too know of other public housing that has been well-maintained. Part of the answer likely lies in building community and providing people with a sense of ownership -- if not actual title to the property, at least a significant role in decisions about the building. This apparently was not the case at Pruitt-Igoe.

[–] GethinVanH 12 years ago

There was no supporting infrastructure when Pruitt-Igoe was built. It was just a concrete concentration camp. The government has plenty of money to spend on wars (like the Vietnam war at the time) but apparently didn't want to spend anything on the upkeep of the project.

It was pretty much designed to fail. Maybe intentionally because social housing is "communism" and "socialism" and those are the scariest of scary boogeymen in the USA.

I think the project is a great example of government stupidity and racism.

[–] FdAgent35 11 years ago

The sources were the law abiding african american citizens that lived there and even said on the videos of this project..... People there started selling drugs, breaking things, starting gangs, PISSING in the elevators, setting fires in hallways, etc and destroyed the nice community they had. Good job people.

[–] Guywithlastname 9 years ago

I hear you! When I saw this my jaw hanged open from pure shock. These people spend an entire documentary bragging about destroying the building around them and then turning around and blaming the government.

Government didn't urinate in your elevators. Government didn't lob rocks and Molotovs at public service workers. They did and they bragged about it.

You have to be a special kind of stupid to watch this and walk away thinking Pruitt-Igoe was anybody's fault but its residents.